Hugh Howey recommends two books for overcoming the odds against you: Outliers: The Story of Success and Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. In part, he says, “What can you do with the knowledge found in Outliers? You can learn the potential reward of putting in 10,000 hours of hard work. Even the story of Mozart is debunked, who didn’t hit his stride until he had his 10,000 hours invested. He just got them in earlier than most.”